Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Boris’s Paris match: an interview with Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet

Can Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet follow in the London mayor’s footsteps?

issue 18 May 2013

It’s Monday lunchtime, downstairs in the Spectator office, and Boris Johnson is trying to flog a bus to a Frenchwoman. ‘What about the new Routemaster? It’s absolutely great, yup, fantastic, yup. Hey, they could be really good for Paris,’ he says. She smiles and says nothing. ‘Well what about bendy-buses then?’ he carries on. ‘We’ve got a few of those you can have…’

‘Come on, please’ she interrupts, kindly but firmly, in excellent English. ‘Stop your recycling with me.’

Has Boris met his match? Her name is Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, she’s just turned 40, and she’s running to be the next mayor of Paris. Boris calls her ‘terrific’, and it’s easy to see what he means. NKM, as she’s called in France, is hyper-intelligent, pro-business, and centre-right. Plus, let’s not be coy here, she’s a bit of a hottie. She wears trendy clothes, has fierce clever eyes, and exudes a sort of minxy froideur.

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